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« on: March 16, 2008, 12:36:28 PM »
I just posted about it in another thread but I thought I'd give it its own thread here.
Is anyone here a veteran of the old-school education programs for computers? Maybe you had them at school on those old Macs that everyone had in their labs or maybe you had them at home...or both!
Here were the ones I had at home...I used to have these on this really old Macintosh called a Macintosh LC, most schools seemed to have these computers too. I actually used that computer up until five years ago or so.
Math Blaster: There were four games in this one, they taught the four basic operations. One of the games was solving problems to build a rocket. There was another where you had to find the missing addend (or whatever number was in the middle) and got points you could use to shoot outer space trash. Another game was finding the right numbers to make the problem work called "Recycler" and there was the arcade-type game where you guided the little guy up to the right answer and also got to eat the food for extra points. I had this at school and at home.
Oregon Trail: I think everyone born in the 1980s knows about this game. A simulation of the westward migration which usually took the place of that chapter in your social studies book. You could cross rivers, hunt, and die of cholera. Lots of fun times with this game. I had this at school and at home.
Carmen Sandiego: If I recall, the computer game came out before the TV show did. I used to watch the TV show when I came home from school. It was always fun plus the singing group on there, Rockapella, was really cool. The game has you chasing a crook from country to country based on a clue, just like the TV show. You got a desk encyclopedia with it so you could look up anything you didn't know. I had the "where in time" one, my school had the "where in America" one in elementary school and "where in the world" in middle school. There was also a Europe one at middle school which I think was the hardest, probably because schools in the US don't teach much world history. The time one had to be my favorite.
Number Munchers: Another classic from what I hear. This one had prime numbers, factors, multiples, etc and you were this little green dude who had to eat the right answers while not eating the wrong ones or running into the monsters. My school had this one as did I. At my school there was also a game just like it but you had to eat vowel sounds, we used this in our phonics units in first grade all the time (the math one is a lot more advanced though--even someone in Algebra I could probably use it to brush up on their factors).
OutNumbered: An arcade type math game where you walked through a TV station and had to solve word problems. You also had to shoot this guy who looked like a TV who would give you regular math problems and code. The code matched up against what you got for solving word problems and you had to pick a combination to figure out where the bad guy was. This one was really addicting. I played it first at the computer camp my school had one summer (that just about everyone from my class went to) and got it for my birthday later that year.
Kid Pix: Not really a game but my school had it. I had it too. Basically you drew pictures and could add these awesome rubber stamp things to them and you also had some cool erasers like a firecracker. There was an addon pack you could get to make movies from your pictures.
Battle Chess: I learned to play chess with this one. It plays just like chess but when you capture someone they fight. This started out as a black and white program but they later came out with a color version that had music. My school didn't have this one but I did.
Windows Solitaire: Good time waster from high school. I lost so many minutes of productivity when we had computer classes with this one. There's a Mac version too but it's called Klondike and costs ten bucks or so to register it.
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